The Plight of a Journalist or We Are All Julian Assange

I found it very upsetting to hear that Ecuador gagged and completely isolated Assange for various reasons.  For one thing, this isn’t just about one man. If it were the populace could probably easily ignore what is happening. No, this is about all of us.  We are all Julian Assange. Let me explain…

Let’s go back to the 60’s when the US government destroyed two men because of their influential voices.  Many people forget that chaotic time of civil rights and unjust government agencies.  Our own government threatened and then killed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. for the same thing that Julian Assange is detained for.  Freedom of Speech and exposing injustice!  John F Kennedy was also assassinated for speaking his mind and threatening to expose corruption.  Both men were well loved by their supporters.  Sounds all too familiar.

Julian Assange is in a very vulnerable position at the moment that perhaps, many don’t see.  Being completely isolated from others puts him in a dangerous situation because it would be impossible for him to get the word out if something happens to him. Thank goodness they are allowing his lawyers in.  It infuriates me that Ecuador has done this to this man.  Imagine if this was your son, brother or father and how you would worry for him.

Julian is a free speech advocate and human rights defender.  He stands for all of us, both average citizen and journalist.  He is persecuted the same as MLK once was.  They smeared him with fake sex allegations just as they did King.  They arrested him without charge and he sought political asylum from a foreign country who promised him to defend his rights. In fact, Ecuador recently gave him citizenship only to deny him his rights to free speech.

Where I am going with this is that he is every one of us who wants to save our God-given human rights as individuals. He exposes those who seek to destroy them.  He stands up for the underdog and the whistleblower who are unjustly victimized.  He simply is a truth teller and they are making him pay for sticking up for us.  Think of the older kid who stopped the bully from hurting you as a kid.  Then think of that older kid getting suspended for doing the right thing.  That is Assange.

When Ecuador accepted Julian as a refuge, they were making a promise to protect him and keep him from being persecuted.  The definition according to Collins Dictionary is as follows:

law

Political asylum is the right to live in a foreign country, and is given by the government of that country to people who have to leave their own country because they are in danger of persecution.

If you look at the following statement found at Ace Electoral Knowledge Network it shows what the 1952 Convention relating to the status of refugees states.

The first of these is that of the refugee, defined under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the associated 1967 Protocol as a person who ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country’. 

Ecuador promised to protect Assange by allowing him political asylum.  Protect not punish.  By taking away Julian’s right to speak with family and friends, denying him visitors and removing his internet access, they have violated the definition given in 1951 by the United Nations convention.  In fact, they have put him in solitary confinement like he is a prisoner, not a refugee.  Doing this is very contradictory to their constitution and shows that this government has willingly taken away one of its citizens rights.  KimDotCom spoke of this in the following tweet.

This illegal detainment by the UK and gagging order by Ecuador hurts every citizen of Western Democracy.  It shows that the ruling power has the right to change laws as it sees fits with no regard for its own citizens.  It should bring fear to the heart of every single person who uses these rights on a daily basis.  This gag order is nothing more than an extra chapter in the novel 1984.  It is Big Brother stifling our press, punishing our journalists and destroying our rights to free speech.

Who will be next in their destructive power?   Will it be you or I? Who will they persecute next for simply telling the public the truth?  How long before they start burning books and imprisoning people for not agreeing with them?  Is this NAZI Germany?

There is nothing more cruel and heartless than totally isolating an intelligent mind from others.  It is a punishment meant for deserving individuals not to silence a journalist.  We need to cry out for ourselves as we stand up for this man!

Currently, there is a petition written to Lenin Moreno and the Ecuador government requesting that they lift this gag order.  If you want to save a fellow human being and stand up for your own rights, please sign and spread the word.

link to petition